ESPN College Hoops is the second college basketball game from Sega and
company. While last years game brought us the same exciting gameplay from
Sega’s NBA line of games, it was combined with an exciting college atmosphere.
The 2K4 edition enhances the college pageantry to give it that authentic NCAA
feel, and adds in several other new features like the IsoMotion control
introduced in ESPN NBA earlier in the year, an enhanced Legacy mode, and the
Slam Session mini-games. In the end, it comes up as a legitimate threat
against EA’s March Madness franchise.

College Hoops controls a lot like last year’s game in some aspects,
but now practically every button on the Xbox controller is utilized. The back
button now has a vital function on offense and defense. When you have the
ball, a quick press of the back button can be used to call a timeout, this
handy option saves the hassle of going through the pause menus to call a
timeout in last year’s title. On the defensive side of things the back button
is used to have your closest defender to the ball carrier commit an
intentional foul in order to stop a fast break, or to send a low-rated free
throw shooter to the line while in the penalty of an incredibly close game.

Speaking of free throws, Sega has included its brand spanking new free
throw system from ESPN NBA this year. Instead of lining up the two
arrows as we have always been doing it in every Sega hoops game since the
inaugural NBA 2K on the Dreamcast, we now line up these two aiming
brackets with the L & R triggers, and once they are perfectly centered to form
an open circle in the middle you have to time a press of the X button so that
a rapidly moving dot will stop close to dead center in that open circle of the
aiming brackets. In my opinion, this is a much more challenging free throw
system than before, and is even more challenging going against a friend as
they can wiggle both of their thumbsticks while you’re at the line to vibrate
your controller in an attempt of them to throw off your timing.

Besides the new free throw system, Sega also implemented the new IsoMotion
contols from this year’s ESPN NBA. IsoMotion is Sega’s answer to EA’s
‘FreeStyle’ control scheme. Now we can do more than just crossover and spin
moves, where a flick of the right control stick will have the ball carrier
perform a fancy dribble in an attempt to deke out the defender and drive to
the paint. Don’t get too carried away showing off though, as there are
counters to the IsoMotion on defense too. Each direction of the right analog
stick will have the defender perform a different variation of a quick steal
attempt, and don’t forget if you’re on the defensive side of things, you can
always press the white button to take a charge. I personally found the
IsoMotion to work quite well; you just have to know when to use it. Timing it
just right against an unaware defender will almost guarantee a drive to the
paint, while showing off a bit too much will either result in losing control
of the ball, or having it stolen away from you.

Now just because I’m mentioning these big features that Sega has included
from ESPN NBA, don’t think that you are going to be playing the same
game, but with college teams to choose from instead of professional ones. All
the NCAA rules are in effect here, especially the vital ones that
differentiate college ball from the NBA. The ones I’m talking about are the
closer three point line, lesser amount of team fouls to go into the penalty,
five fouls for a foul out instead of the six in the NBA, and more importantly
of all, there is no defensive three second in the paint call. The computer AI
also seems to put more of an emphasis on college ball where you’ll notice them
playing a lot more zone defense, making you really work hard on your post game
and your ability to get a dunk or lay up.

The Legacy mode introduced in last year’s game has gotten quite the
overhaul. Right off the bat, you’ll notice the new email menus that Sega has
introduced in their 2K4 titles this past year. These put a big focus on saving
time from going through the plethora of menus to do simple transactions. For
example, you might get an email from a high school player wanting an
invitation to check out your campus. Instead of toggling through menus to go
to the recruiting section and seeing if that player is worthy enough for you
to invite to check out your school, you can now automatically jump right to
the recruiting screen to get all the information on that particular player.
Speaking of recruiting, Full season recruiting is another new feature to the
Legacy mode this year where during your regular basketball season you can send
one or two of your assistant coaches to scout players, attend their home games
and report back to you. You can also attend their own home games and watch
what happens to if you so desire. Ultimately, this will help you track your
recruits better and help lock them in a scholarship to your college before the
other teams pick them up in the off-season.

All the stat-tracking features are in the Legacy mode that you expect too,
including Top 25 polls from the Coach’s, ESPN, and the Press. If your players
perform too well for college levels, don’t be surprised to see them pack up
their bags early and leave for the NBA. To top it all off, there is a trophy
room where you can look back at all the trophies your team has garnered over
the years.

If all those in-depth features sound a bit too much for you to handle, then
there is a standalone Season mode where you can just do one season of play and
help lead your team to the NCAA Final Four without all the fuss of worrying
about recruiting and whatnot. Other regular modes returning to this year’s
game is Exhibition mode where you can hop into a quick game and tweak all the
settings and rules to your choosing. Practice mode is also back, and is a
great way to perfect the new IsoMotion controls, and Tournament mode makes its
return where a total of four players can compete in either a conference
tournament of a complete NCAA tournament.

There are a few more new modes being introduced in ESPN College Hoops.
One is the Rivalry mode where you can take one of the NCAA teams and pit it up
against one of its most hated rivals; prime examples are Duke vs. USC and Army
vs. Navy. Then there is the new Gym Rat mode, which is a lot like the Street
mode in the Sega’s NBA titles, but the pickup game of basketball takes place
in a Gym instead of an outdoor court. The main new mode of play introduced is
ESPN Slam Session where you can compete in one of five dunk mini-games that
range from who can complete the most dunks in the shortest amount of time to
seeing which competitor that can pump up the crowd the most by doing the
flashier dunk. This must be College Hoops’ answer to ESPN NBA’s
24/7 mode. While these dunk contests are a fun little diversion, they
eventually grow old and repetitive after awhile, and aren’t as addicting and
involved as the aforementioned 24/7 mode.

Graphically speaking, College Hoops is just a couple notches under
the superb in-game visuals of ESPN NBA, but they still manage to hold
their own. They’re about on par with play models in NBA 2K3 That still
isn’t a bad thing, as you can make out all the details on players like arm
bands, and tattoos. The instant replays still look as amazing as ever, and all
the action moves at a fast, fluid, framerate. There are a seemingly limitless
amount of animations for all the crossovers, dribbles, dunks, and lay-ups in
the game. They look outstanding and will get you wondering if you can pull off
some of these near-unbelievable dunks.

The menus and overlays are all ESPN-themed, and there presence in this
franchise is double the amount as it was last year. Borrowing a page out of
ESPN NFL, Visual Concepts has included dozens upon dozens of cut-scenes of
the players, coaches, cheerleaders, mascots, and fans. The players, coaches,
and mascots will celebrate with each other after a good play and often get in
shouting contests with the refs after a bad call. The fans will cheer on the
home team when they’re on a winning run or boo the heck out of them when
they’re losing big time. They look fantastic and help a lot on completing the
college pageantry in the game.

To really emphasize the ESPN presence this year, fellow ESPN commentators
Mike Patrick and Jay Bilas provide the commentary. They actually do a pretty
good job overall, as their comments don’t sound as robotic and generic as
commentary tends to be in other basketball games. Within a few games I noticed
they already started to repeat their comments, but that’s expected out of any
sports title and their upbeat tempo complements well with the fast-paced
gameplay. There are plenty of other things going on court that complete the
college atmosphere, such as fight songs from the band and many different types
of chants from the fans. Menu music is consisted of several Sports Center
themes that eventually grow old and get very repetitive. Custom soundtracks
options or even some licensed music would have helped here, but none of that
is to be found.

The Campus Store is College Hoops’ version of an unlock system.
First, you achieve points by completing challenges by completing one of many
statistical challenges in the game, and then you use them to buy historical
teams, pro-court arenas, alternate jerseys, mascot teams, and fantasy courts.
You can also check up on your stats or listen to your custom soundtracks while
in the Campus Store as well. While it is indeed a nice unlock system, it lacks
the flash and the customization of the much cooler Crib feature in ESPN NFL.
However, working hard to unlock all those items will take a great deal of
time, and the ESPN Slam Session and Gym Rat modes are nice little diversions
from the serious gameplay in Legacy mode. Xbox Live online multiplayer is
again supported for up to eight players online, and is complete with all the
extra goodies you expect like scoreboards, and downloadable roster updates.

RATINGS

Graphics: 8.4
Sound: 8.9
Gameplay: 9.2
Replay Value: 9.0

Overall: 8.8

This game has all that you can want out of a NCAA basketball title such as
an in-depth Legacy mode, plenty of unlockable items, a bunch of mini-games,
and online play! Sega has always been outperforming EA in the basketball
department, and the same now goes for their college basketball games too. If
you’re a big fan of college basketball, then you owe it to yourself to get
ESPN College Hoops.